Thread by @BiIndia

#TeachersDay | ‘Mute yourself’ is the new ‘keep quiet’ – how the lives of teachers has changed because of online learning

businessinsider.in/education/news…

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By @SanchDash

The #pandemic has changed the school experience for teachers, students, and parents. This is being called the ‘new normal’ and not everything about it is right.

The classic ‘keep quiet’ has turned into ‘mute yourself’, while the teacher struggles to finish an online class with, hopefully, minimal disturbances. That’s the least of all the adjustments that everyone has had to make.

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To start with, the acoustics of an online classroom are different.

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For hundreds of teachers across the country, the lockdown didn’t just mean they were stuck inside their homes, it also meant they had to suddenly learn all about ‘Zoom classes’ and online learning.

Teachers, who have been used to the blackboard and chalk all their lives, now had to create excel sheets and learn to ‘share screen’.

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From makeshift tables to adjusting the phone over a stack of books, so that the students can see the blackboard at home, teachers aren’t just teaching but also relearning the ‘how tos’.

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In fact, many started borrowing the selfie sticks and tripods of their kids and set them up in front of a blackboard at home in a typical Indian jugaad.

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The horror – peeking parents

A curious student is what a teacher wishes for but what they get in online education is nosy parents.

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Online learning meant the child was home and the parent whose visit was best reserved for a parent teachers meeting, is now right next to the child peering into the screen.

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The experience could be far more traumatic, if at all, they have any access to online education. The #pandemic has not just brought technology into schools. It has also changed what it means to be a teacher and a student.

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